Friday, 28 April 2017

Conversation Starters

Donna-Michelle St. Bernard will be teaching our "Playwriting: How to Tell an 'Important' Story" at our Summer Theatre Intensive. Donna-Michelle's important story Sound of the Beast can be seen at Theatre Passe Muraille in Toronto from April 13 to May 7.

Summer Theatre Intensive 2017 – Bigger and Better Than Ever – in partnership with Off the Wall Stratford Artists Alliance features week-long courses starting August 6 and August 13 for performers, directors, and playwrights. Early-bird rate registration deadline is May 1.

Theatre Ontario Festival 2017 opens on May 17 in Ottawa—featuring performances, adjudications, playwright readings, workshops, and celebrations of community theatre.

Answers to your FAQ’s about the business of acting at our Launching Your Career workshop with Rachel Kennedy and guest Karen Knox on May 24 in Toronto.

Learn how Google Analytics can help grow your business. Camp Tech’s most popular workshops and Intermediate Google Analytics (May 23) and Intro to Google Analytics (Jun 14) can tell you how your audience is finding you, which content is getting viewed most often and help you configure simple goals for your website. Other upcoming workshops at Camp Tech are: Social Media Basics (Apr 27 and Jun 6); Digital Marketing on a Shoestring Budget (May 3); Facebook Ads: Getting the Most Bang for Your Buck (May 4); Wordpress for Beginners (May 7); and Social Media Advanced (May 16). Learn more about Theatre Ontario member discounts at CampTech through our partnership with the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts.

New on The Bulletin Board

Canadian Stage invites applications for Territorial Tales, a creative launching pad for young storytellers ages 14-21 in Toronto. The application deadline is May 12.

Young People’s Theatre invites applications for In the Moment: an intergenerational training opportunity for emerging and experienced actors. The program runs August 26 to September 4 in Toronto, with the application deadline of May 19.

Tuesday, 25 April 2017

I’ve been excited about this year’s intensive courses since murmurings of a new partnership started buzzing around last fall, so please accept my apologies now for the number of exclamation marks that are likely to follow in this blog post…

For our 41st annual Summer Theatre Intensive, Theatre Ontario has partnered with Off the Wall Stratford Artists’ Alliance and will be offering courses out of their home-base at local arts hub, Factory163. If you are not already familiar with either of these organizations I encourage you to visit their websites (linked below) and take a look at everything they have to offer. For those in the know, you will recognize them as state-of-the-art training providers in theatrical production, nestled into a gorgeous renovated factory building that has focused their efforts on creating an environmentally friendly and sustainable centre for large-scale events and arts offices. On my first visit to Factory163 last year it became immediately clear why our executive director, Bruce Pitkin, had been intrigued by the idea of partnering with these companies.

A quick tour through the facilities at Off The Wall took us through areas like their welding shop and paint studio as well as storage spaces filled with past creations including costumes, masks, set pieces and props for various shows. Each piece had a story behind it and our hosts from Off the Wall were happy to share many of them with us, bringing the space to life and giving us a glimpse into the years of students and ideas that they have inspired. Even as we travelled upstairs to take a look at their studios and offices, costumes and props continued to decorate the hallways. From giant feathered birds to old photos of Stratford Festival alumni, this building breathes creativity into every corner. I was hooked!

This partnership between Theatre Ontario and Off The Wall allows us to create a training hub for artists working both onstage and behind the scenes, and encourages participants to connect with new people from disciplines they may not have had access to otherwise. A big part of the Summer Intensive experience in the past has been the community building and relationships that are born out of having so many creative minds in one place. This year is sure to build on that communal environment with the introduction of so many new production artists to the mix. Some courses, like Peggy Coffey’s mask performance intensive, will even be intersecting directly with counterparts in Off the Wall’s mask creation class where students in both areas will come together to see how one side’s work affects the other. This creates even more room for meaningful connections among participants!

Closing night at the 2016 Summer Theatre Intensive

All of this is not to say that we haven’t faced some challenges while planning for this year’s intensive. We have strayed from our usual offering of an all-inclusive package and opted for a course fee covering the class, lunch and dinner for each participant, thereby allowing everyone to choose their own accommodations from a handful of discounted options which we hope will better suit a range of price-points and bring more financial accessibility to our programming. In addition to this, Factory163 has been supportive of our goal to maintain communal spaces for participants and has generously offered to leave its doors open for rehearsals and group gatherings each evening. So no matter where you’re laying your head, there will be lots of time to get together with other participants each day!

As Off the Wall’s executive director Michele Boniface explained in a recent press release, quoted in the recent Stratford Beacon Herald article about the upcoming partnership, “Stratford is well-known for its important place in Canadian theatre and is increasingly recognized for the diversity of arts and artists in the community. Our students really will be working in a creative incubator.” Add to the mix our annual events like play readings and visits to local theatre companies or artist hot-spots, and I couldn’t see a better way to spend a week (or two) this August! So the only remaining question is… will I be seeing you there?!

Behind the Scenes at Ontario’s Theatres

Richard Howard

Sad to share the news of the passing of Richard Howard. Richard was a long-time member of our Talent Bank as an adjudicator and instructor of acting and directing. He also supported our Festival and Summer Theatre Intensive for many years by sponsoring the Richard Howard Award, which gave a scholarship for a summer course to one of the Festival directors. He was honoured with our Maggie Bassett Award for his contribution to theatre in Ontario, and by our Community Theatre Committee with a special Michael Spence Award for his innovative and professional contribution to community theatre in Ontario. The Sault Star wrote about his contribution in Sault Ste. Marie.

Our Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) offers financial support for unique and flexible training with a chosen mentor in any theatrical discipline (except performance.)

Erin Gerofsky is training in set and costume design with Judith Bowden

(March 18, 2017) As a significant part of my training, I accompanied Judith to fabric shop in NYC, and to tech Watch on the Rhine in DC. Both trips provided me with invaluable learning experiences in the process of theatre-making, but also offered an abundance of inspiration in arts and culture that are helping to reshape my process.

From January 10 to 14 I enjoyed making the rounds at many of the larger fabric houses in NYC: I have a freezer-sized bag of fabric swatches to prove it. For the better part of three of those days, I joined Judith and the Head of Wardrobe from Shaw or Stratford (good scheduling meant Judith was able to shop for both shows in NYC one after the other) visiting fabric stores hunting for the perfect ‘purpley-greeney-grey’ linen, ‘a lightweight silk twill in a navy that isn't too dark’, and other such treasures. It was a great exercise in learning what Judith's eye is drawn to, which shops let you swatch for free, and all the decisions I need to have made before I dare bring someone fabric to be made into buttons and belts. Thanks to Shaw and Stratford's planning and having both Heads of Wardrobe in town to shop, it was also a great opportunity to observe what the dynamic between the Head of Wardrobe and the Designer brings to the process. Observing differences in note-taking style, book-keeping and negotiation tactics was useful for me on a very practical level, as in this time in my career I frequently wear all of the hats, particularly when it comes to costumes; knowing where to shop is just as important as knowing who to hire. This scheduling also had the added benefit of having Nancy Perrin—who is assisting Judith on The Changeling at Stratford—in town for shopping, who found a delightful off-off-Broadway show Gorey: The Secret Lives of Edward Gorey which we took in on my last night in town. It was superb, we enjoyed it immensely, and committed egregious theatre faux pas when we thought a programme insert was inviting us to explore and take photos of the stage. Oops!

The abundance of selection in NYC is reason enough for theatres to shop for fabrics there. For every store we went in to, there are three we didn't; stores carrying nothing but zippers in every length, material and colour, stores stuffed with sequins and velvet burnouts, stores specializing in dancewear and spandex. Following Judith around I learned to carry manila tags on a ring and a stapler to keep my swatches organized and on which to write the price, width and supplier for reference. I learned the value of over-swatching so that I have a bundle of options at the ready when I feel stuck for a fabric solution down the road, and I already know how it fits into my colour palette. I was recently able to put these lessons into action through my work costume designing The Penelopiad at George Brown, the first show I have ever designed that is largely being built—and the labour is someone who isn't me. I went out on my own for a few hours one afternoon to swatch the show and then had two very successful shopping trips with my Head of Wardrobe where we found fabrics that worked well into our budget and suited the story I was trying to tell through the textures we used. We are still in the earlier stages of the build process, but the show is shaping up to have a very cohesive visual design that tells its own stories and makes its own connections to support the text, that has at the same time been an exciting vehicle for play and experimentation.

Okay, back to the USA. This time, a trip to the capital, mere days after Donald Trump took over the White House. It was a very strange time to be visiting the capital, but having over a week there meant I really got to take advantage of the many free museums and beautiful architecture that DC has to offer. During my time there I had the opportunity to sit in on a few tech days on Watch on the Rhine at Arena Stage, which Judith was costume designing. It was a great pleasure to see the final tightening phase on a show with such a phenomenal team, about issues that are so timely. I won't say much here, but do watch the film version from 1943 starring Bette Davis (I did, after coming home, I couldn't get the show out of my mind!) Observing tech and hearing about the production process at Arena Stage was a great insight into the differences between American and Canadian practices of theatre creation. For instance, lighting levels did not have scheduled time to program with light walkers; all lighting cues were created while scenes were worked on stage over the course of two days. In Costumeland, the biggest difference in the build process is that Arena Stage builds muslins for every garment they build, a practice which is oft foregone for being too costly and time-consuming. From the designer's and builder's perspective, building a muslin provides an invaluable opportunity to alter the pattern to better suit the actor before cutting into the final fabric, giving you a cleaner final product. It's also a chance to see how long a garment will take to build, and what materials suit the cuts the best. In the fitting process, a muslin provides a literal canvas to draw on and pin to tweak the shapes to suit. A great fitting tip I picked up from Judith is to keep a long length of 1/4” twill in white and black in my kit to bring into fittings. I can use whatever twill is in high contrast with my fabric to visually adjust the lines and offer a guideline to mark up the muslin for alterations. That's a tip you can take right to the fitting room.

DC's many free museums filled up a number of afternoons, leaving more still to discover next visit. Highlights include seeing an exhibit on how bystanders become complicit in genocide through inaction at the Holocaust Memorial Museum, and the National Gallery's contemporary art collection (pretty much all of it.) It was a really interesting time to be in DC to say the least, with a few large protests occurring both within the city centre and at the airport while I was in town. One of the unexpected and most enjoyed side effects of this mentorship has been reassessing my sources of inspiration as a part of my process. I have tried to reconnect with old sources of inspiration I haven't gone to lately, as well as look at new avenues and where they could take me. I look forward to continuing to explore this through the second half of our mentorship, and I hope to be coming out on the other side with a newly minted artist’s statement to match my new approach to the work.

Our Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) offers financial support for unique and flexible training with a chosen mentor in any theatrical discipline (except performance.)

Valerie Hawkins will train in direction with Jillian Keiley at the Stratford Festival

(March 13, 2017) Well the final pre-production meeting for Bakkhai at the Stratford Festival is fast approaching. In three days I will be sitting in a rehearsal hall at the Avon Theatre amidst some of the best creative, production and design minds in this country! To say I'm excited is an understatement. Then Tuesday morning I meet the cast for the first time...I know from my thirty years past professional experience as an actor what it's like to be one of them and I guess those "first day of school jitters" just never go away no matter what side of the table you're on.

My mentor Jill Keiley, and director of this massive project, drinks green tea and I'm hoping she won't think I'm brown-nosing too much when I show up with one for her...have to start on the right foot and all!

I want to say a huge thank you to her for agreeing to be my mentor and to her assistant Charlotte Gowdy who has already been a huge help! Of course none of this could be possible without the support of Theatre Ontario and the Ontario Arts Council—I’m very grateful.

It's been very exciting to be included in some of the final design discussions and decisions over the past week or so and also being able to do some hands on editing for the final "actor's script"—something that had not even occurred to me as an important aspect of a director's job. Jill likes to work with a clean script wiped of previous stage directions etc so there are no pre-conceived ideas about them...I think that's brilliant and as an actor have often wished I could have "unread" some emotional reaction expressed from some first production script. Really makes sense to me!

One of the big challenges for me on this project is going to be that I'll have to juggle day to day rehearsals with cancer treatment. Sometimes chemotherapy days really kick my butt so I may have to spread out my stamina by doing half days...in some ways this is better because it means I can stay with the project longer. This being said, I am already incredibly thankful to have this creative outlet! It's really wonderful to not have the Cancer pulling all focus!

I'm especially looking forward to seeing how Jill works with the, albeit newly adapted, classical text. I'm also curious to see how she will work with incorporating the new music into the staging and hearing how all the choral intricacies come together. I can't believe how lucky I am to be in the room with a team of this caliber right out of the gate! I hope it bodes well for a long future life exploring a new path as a director. How wonderful that I get to stay at home to live work and heal in beautiful Stratford.

The next application deadline for the Professional Theatre Training Program is October 2, 2017.

Our Professional Theatre Training Program (PTTP) offers financial support for unique and flexible training with a chosen mentor in any theatrical discipline (except performance.)

Ali Berkok will train in sound design with Debashis Sinha and Verne Good at the Stratford Festival

(April 13, 2017) I was thrilled to receive the call, last Thursday, informing me that my PTTP application was accepted. I am humbled, as a greener-than-green aspiring sound designer, to be invited into the ranks, both by Theatre Ontario and my mentors.

Earlier this year, I was encouraged by someone very dear to me to apply for funds to get my feet wet in the world of sound design under the mentorship of Debashis Sinha and Verne Good (on their respective sound designs for The Changeling and Romeo and Juliet at the Stratford Festival.) I’m a jazz pianist and composer with a compositions, performances and recordings under my belt, but I longed to see if there was another audience for my work out there somewhere. Over the last few years I became much more familiar with the theatre world as an audience member. Eventually I became interested in the music and sound surrounding all the action on stage and thought “maybe I could do that.”

I am hoping that the choice to enter sound design will afford me the chance to create in concert with others on a production team, creating work in dialogue with a script, a set, a director and actors and ultimately, a theatre-going audience. More specifically, in this time with Deb and Verne, I hope to supplement my musical knowledge with knowledge of how to create necessary soundscapes in specific spaces, how music and sound ideas are molded and communicated among the creative team, and how the sound product is delivered to the sound technicians who ultimately press the buttons in production. At the end of it all, I am hoping to be ready to take on a whole sound design by myself when that opportunity announces itself.

I can’t express how supportive Deb and Verne have been, and the training hasn’t even started yet! Throughout the weeks of putting my application together, they were extremely generous, emailing back-and-forth at lightning speed, being extremely patient with requests for details and documents. I hope they feel as generous towards me after all the terrible puns I’ll likely make in the car on the way to and from Stratford and Blyth.

This far along in production schedules on the shows in question, and as a shadow to Deb and Verne, I don’t expect there to be much room for creative contributions: those will already have been set. I will, however, be as ready as I can to field any questions or help with any tasks. Perhaps a set of fresh eyes and more importantly, ears, will come in handy, and I’ll provide those.

The next application deadline for the Professional Theatre Training Program is October 2, 2017.

Wednesday, 19 April 2017

Coming Up from Theatre Ontario

The ability of directors and dramaturges to work together to help shape meaningful and entertaining theatre is a crucial part of any production process. Learn more at our “Director-Dramaturge Collaborations” workshop with Matt McGeachy on April 24 in Toronto.

Summer Theatre Intensive 2017 – Bigger and Better Than Ever – in partnership with Off the Wall Stratford Artists Alliance features week-long courses starting August 6 and August 13 for performers, directors, and playwrights. Early-bird rate registration deadline is May 1.

Theatre Ontario Festival 2017 opens on May 17 in Ottawa—featuring performances, adjudications, playwright readings, workshops, and celebrations of community theatre.

Learn how Google Analytics can help grow your business. Camp Tech’s most popular workshops and Intermediate Google Analytics (May 23) and Intro to Google Analytics (Jun 14) can tell you how your audience is finding you, which content is getting viewed most often and help you configure simple goals for your website. Other upcoming workshops at Camp Tech are: Writing Killer Web Content (Apr 20); Social Media Basics (Apr 27 and Jun 6); Digital Marketing on a Shoestring Budget (May 3); Facebook Ads: Getting the Most Bang for Your Buck (May 4); Wordpress for Beginners (May 7); and Social Media Advanced (May 16). Learn more about Theatre Ontario member discounts at CampTech through our partnership with the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts.

The ability of directors and dramaturges to work together to help shape meaningful and entertaining theatre is a crucial part of any production process. Learn more at our “Director-Dramaturge Collaborations” workshop with Matt McGeachy on April 24 in Toronto.

Summer Theatre Intensive 2017 – Bigger and Better Than Ever – in partnership with Off the Wall Stratford Artists Alliance features week-long courses starting August 6 and August 13 for performers, directors, and playwrights. Early-bird rate registration deadline is May 1.

Learn how Google Analytics can help grow your business. Camp Tech’s most popular workshops Intro to Google Analytics (Apr 18 and Jun 14) and Intermediate Google Analytics (May 23) can tell you how your audience is finding you, which content is getting viewed most often and help you configure simple goals for your website. Other upcoming workshops at Camp Tech are: Business Blogging and Content Marketing (Apr 19); Writing Killer Web Content (Apr 20); Social Media Basics (Apr 27 and Jun 6); Digital Marketing on a Shoestring Budget (May 3); Facebook Ads: Getting the Most Bang for Your Buck (May 4); Wordpress for Beginners (May 7); and Social Media Advanced (May 16). Learn more about Theatre Ontario member discounts at CampTech through our partnership with the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts.

Upcoming on The Bulletin Board

Canadian Stage is hosting two free training events: a Dance Masterclass with Antony Hamilton and Alisdair Macindoe on April 27, and a Dramaturgy of Sound in Live Performance with Tamara Saulwick and Peter Knight on April 29. Registration deadline is April 14.

New on The Bulletin Board

Shadowpath Theatre Productions is hosting a free youth (14-21) workshop in Newmarket on April 29.

Tuesday, 11 April 2017

Theatre Ontario is thrilled to welcome the final two productions that will perform at Theatre Ontario Festival 2017 in Ottawa. These productions are chosen from Ontario’s regional community theatre festivals, and are a showcase of outstanding community theatre from across the province.

On Wednesday, May 17, the Northumberland Players from Cobourg return to Festival with their production of Waiting for the Parade by John Murrell. Representing the Eastern Ontario Drama League (EODL) and chosen as Best Production in the EODL Full-Length Festival by adjudicator John P. Kelly, Northumberland Players were the recipients of last year’s Elsie Award for Outstanding Festival Production.

On Friday, May 19, the Toronto Irish Players will represent the Association of Community Theatres—Central Ontario (ACT-CO) with their production of Outside Mullingar by John Patrick Shanley. Toronto Irish Players last represented ACT-CO at Theatre Ontario Festival in 1987. This show was chosen as Best Production in the Comedy category at the ACT-CO Festival by adjudicator Brenda Kamino.

The annual Theatre Ontario Festival is a showcase of outstanding community theatre productions; a classroom for passionate, dedicated community theatre artists; a celebration of excellence in community theatre; and a destination bringing together theatre lovers from across the province. Theatre Ontario Festival 2017 runs May 17 to 21, and is co-hosted with Ottawa Little Theatre and the Eastern Ontario Drama League.

The ability of directors and dramaturges to work together to help shape meaningful and entertaining theatre is a crucial part of any production process. Learn more at our “Director-Dramaturge Collaborations” workshop with Matt McGeachy on April 24 in Toronto.

Summer Theatre Intensive 2017 – Bigger and Better Than Ever – in partnership with Off the Wall, Stratford Artists Alliance features week-long courses starting August 6 and August 13 for performers, directors, and playwrights. Early-bird rate registration deadline is May 1.

Learn how Google Analytics can help grow your business. Camp Tech’s most popular workshops Intro to Google Analytics (Apr 18 andJun 14) and Intermediate Google Analytics (May 23) can tell you how your audience is finding you, which content is getting viewed most often and help you configure simple goals for your website. Other upcoming workshops at Camp Tech are: Intro to Email Marketing with MailChimp (Apr 11); Business Blogging and Content Marketing (Apr 19); Writing Killer Web Content (Apr 20); Social Media Basics (Apr 27 and Jun 6); Digital Marketing on a Shoestring Budget (May 3); Facebook Ads: Getting the Most Bang for Your Buck (May 4); Wordpress for Beginners (May 7); and Social Media Advanced (May 16). Learn more about Theatre Ontario member discounts at CampTech.

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About Theatre Ontario

Serving Ontario's Theatre community since 1971, Theatre Ontario develops and supports theatre practitioners across the province, by providing resources, networking, training and advocacy. To access our services, become a member, or donate to support our work, visit the Theatre Ontario website